For many years, the US and the Philippines have been close partners when it comes to trade. However, under the presidency of Donald Trump, it looks like things are about to change.
Analysts say that Trump has a probability to drive his country to a more inward-looking perspective.
It was one of Trump’s promises during campaign period that he would not approve the “Trans-Pacific Partnership” (TPP), a trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries, including the US.
“It’s a terrible deal for the United States,” he said.
Political analyst Dindo Manhit also told CNN Philippines through an interview that Trump’s direction towards an internally-focused perspective for the United States “will totally change the foreign policy direction. He campaigned based on anti-trade, anti-globalization platforms.”
Political analyst Leloy Caludio also says that Trump’s “isolationist” perspective is in severe contrast to President Barrack Obama’s “internationalist” perspective.
[ads1]
“What we have here is not just a repudiation of the TPP but a repudiation of the kind of globalism of the 90s,” Claudio added.
Claudio also said that Trump’s decision could affect the current US administration’s pivot towards Asia.
“I’m not even sure that Donald Trump will want to invest in military operations in Southeast Asia the way Obama and Hillary did,” he said.
Gilbert Remulla, another political analyst, says that the isolationist attitude of US can both be a good and bad thing for the Philippines.
“The isolationist attitude that America might take up just might jibe with what President Rodrigo Duterte is saying that he wants US troops out. If that happens, definitely there will be less tension in the South China See and I think that’s a good thing for the Philippines at one point,” Remulla explained.
However, Remulla also pointed out that the current and potential US investments to the Philippines are also at risk.
Trump’s victory over Clinton was explained by Claudio as a “global resurgence” of populism, which can also be observed in the Philippines and “various places in Europe.”
[ads2]
“This is a message that an outsider—who is fundamentally different from the persons inside and is more similar to the working classes or the masses or whoever—can come up, shake things up, and completely turn the world upside down,” Claudio said.
“For some reason, in this period in world history, that message is extremely appealing and people are willing to throw caution into the wind in order to have change.”
Change is indeed coming.
Source: (cnnphilippines.com)
[ads3]
